Cops nabs 4 over PDS rice smuggling

In the first incident, a truck carrying 35 tonnes of PDS rice was intercepted at Shadnagar and one person identified as Pradeep was arrested.

Hyderabad: The Cyberabad Special Operations Team (SOT) caught four persons on charges of smuggling and illegally transporting Public Distribution System (PDS) rice at different locations in the city on Thursday. A total of 53 tonnes of rice worth Rs 10.6 lakh was seized.

In the first incident, a truck carrying 35 tonnes of PDS rice was intercepted at Shadnagar and one person identified as Pradeep was arrested.

In another incident, about 1 ton of PDS rice was seized from Rama Koti at Pedda Golconda in Shamshabad. Sourced from villages On enquiry, Rama Koti revealed that he was buying PDS rice from the villages around Shamshabad and supplying it to the rice mills in Maheshwaram.

In the third incident, 17 tons of PDS rice were seized from a man at Kismatpur in Rajendranagar. The suspect procured PDS rice illegally from local people from different areas and smuggled it to Nagpur where he sold it for a higher rate.